Journal of Educational Administration最新文献

Purpose

This study explores factors that influence the initiation of leadership coaching relationships that include externally employed coaches and school administrators.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative research study includes semi-structured interviews, observations and documents collected across three academic years within the context of a university-based leadership coaching program. Participants included six leadership coaches and six school administrators who participated in the program.

Findings

Qualitative analysis indicates that gender and race, prior professional experience, pre-existing professional relationships and the complexity of the district’s organizational structure influence the initiation of the coaching relationship.

Research limitations/implications

Confidentiality restrictions imposed by the program limit opportunities for member checking and other forms of triangulation. Additional data collection using more expansive research methods would help address this limitation.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the sparse literature about leadership coaching with school administrators by describing how different factors influence initiation coaching relationships.

Purpose

Instructional leadership is a school leadership approach that places great emphasis on enhancing the quality of teaching and learning. This study explored the enabling factors of instructional leadership in subject coordinators.

Design/methodology/approach

The participants in this qualitative study were 24 subject coordinators in elementary schools in Israel. Data collection was based on semi-structured interviews, and data analysis included three stages: sorting, coding and categorizing.

Findings

The findings identified three significant enabling factors of instructional leadership in subject coordinators: pedagogical knowledge, relationship capability and support from the principal.

Originality/value

This study suggests that the enabling factors of instructional leadership in subject coordinators differ from those of instructional leadership in principals because of their different places in the school structure and explains the enablers of instructional leadership in subject coordinators as middle leaders.

Purpose

As responsibilities of high school principals continue to expand, their workweeks become longer, and their attention is stretched in multiple directions. How principals from various school types use their time is influenced by their organizational structures and external policies. To gain deeper insights into the workload, priorities and constraints faced by high school principals, this study examines principal time use (PTU) patterns across different school types, including traditional public schools (TPSs), charter schools, Catholic schools and non-Catholic private schools.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on the national representative data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 in the USA, this study examines and compares PTU in various leadership tasks across different school types, controlling for school and principal characteristics.

Findings

Among various high school types, principals in TPS had the longest workweeks. However, the extended workweek did not necessarily result in significantly more hours or a larger proportion of their time dedicated to instructional leadership. Instead, TPS principals allocated more time to administrative tasks and student affairs than principals in other school types.

Originality/value

By examining PTU of different school types, this study adds new evidence on the influence of contextual factors on leadership behavior. It also offers policy implications to enhance principals’ capacities, alleviate their workload and to prioritize time use in different leadership domains.

Purpose

Building on the social cognitive theory, a mediation model was examined to understand the role of teacher self-efficacy as the underlying mechanism for the relationship between instructional leadership and teacher job satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

The study tests a mediation model between instructional leadership, teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction. The data were collected via online survey from primary school teachers (N = 320) working for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MDC) in India. The mediation model was tested using the AMOS 22.0 after establishing the reliability and validity of measures.

Findings

Regression analyses using the bootstrapping method indicated that teacher self-efficacy mediates the relationship between instructional leadership and teacher job satisfaction.

Research limitations/implications

This is a cross-sectional study. The scope for causal inferences is, thus, limited.

Practical implications

In the Indian setting, the study examines the association between instructional leadership and job satisfaction. The results show that the instructional leadership of the school principal is strongly related to teachers' self-efficacy, which, in turn is positively associated with teacher’s job satisfaction. Further, the findings confirm that instructional leadership, emphasizing instructional improvement, improves teachers' self-efficacy and job satisfaction.

Originality/value

The study explains the underlying process through which a school principal’s instructional leadership is related to teacher job satisfaction. This study is perhaps the first to focus on an Indian or a non-Western context.